Itty bitty spider

Sitting in the family-room recliner facing the T-boxes on the 4th fairway, Cypress Course, I was startled to see a huge spider web between me and the old men teeing off. I struggled into a vertical position, fetched the camera, and went into the back yard before the sun was too high in the sky. This spider’s magnificent wed appeared the day after the last cutting of grass. This first picture below was taken at 6:53am on June 4, 2012 in beautiful Palm Coast, Florida.

As may be seen the web has sustained some structural damage from flying objects, or captured food. The master of this giant web is seen monitoring his creation from the precise middle of the circle. I anticipated the web would be there only a few days, as cutting the grass in Florida in Spring and Summer is a weekly event.

To my surprise, the web appeared a second time after the next cutting about a week later. A third web followed the second cutting, and the wily spider moved this web about three feet to the South of the first location. It was still stretched between four anchors on the branches above and the ground some six feet below, but the design was virtually identical. The third web is pictured below, and was taken at 7:51am, June 16, 2012. Two sets of T-boxes may be seen in background.

This incredible architect, pictured in the middle of his creation, is shown close-up in the following picture.

The spider is only partially visible, as he-she appears to be sunning on the far side of the web. The two orange projections are the points of a star-shaped shell worn on the small spider’s back. On the right-middle of the central opening is seen the beginning of the continuous filament which wound the web from the inside out.

Each time the grass is cut, the spider spends the next day and night rebuilding the web again so he can eat his next meal. How nice it would be if all the folks in DC were required to produce something of value in response to our nation’s serious circumstances. Mayor Bloomberg is busy trying to regulate the size of sugary soft drinks in New York City, and politicians and government employees across the country are feathering their own ideological nests while the debt soars.

Strange how the miniscule brain of the spider can produce so much in such a short period of time, while our bloated representatives across the country achieve virtually nothing of value.